Publicity

PUBLICITY IN MARKETING

1. PUBLICITY
Publicity
• It is a direct function of PR.
• It is the task of getting editorial and news space as opposed to paid space in print and
broadcast media to promote a product, service or a company
o Publicity is the public visibility or awareness for any product, service or company.it is
one of the component of promotion and marketing.
o It is a non paid communication to promote the company in positive light using media
vehicles.
o It is done by third party.
o Major tool used in the publicity is press release which gives information about the
product.
o ‘’The non-personal stimulation of demand for a product, service, or business unit by
planting commercially significant news about it in a published medium or obtaining
favourable presentation of it upon radio, television or stage that is not paid for by the
sponsor.’’
[American Marketing Association]
o Generating news about a product or service in the media
o Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the publics perception of a subject.
o The subjects of publicity include people (for example, politicians and performing
artists), goods and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or
entertainment.
USES
 Attracts publics attention
 maintain public visibility
 provide information
 change attitudes
Purpose of publicity
 Favorable publicity increase the credibility and result in building faith in the product or
company where as unfavorable publicity will result in creating doubt in the mind of
people for the product or the company.
 Favourable publicity increase the demand and unfavorable publicity decrease the
demand.

2. Effects of bad publicity
 Loss of trust from the public
 Effects on sale i.e reduces the sale of the product
 Possibility to fall in investigation
 Financial loss
 Cease-and-Desist Orders of the company
Some criteria to distinguish publicity and advertisement
 The extent of truth is greater in publicity as compared to advertising
 Advertising is always related to business while publicity may be moral, social and
political also.
 Most of the times in advertising social responsibility ignored while in publicity special
focus is given on social responsibility
 Advertising is paid form of ideas,goods and services while publicity is not paid by
sponsor
TYPES OF PUBLICITY
1. Positive Publicity
2. Negative Publicity
DEALING WITH NEGATIVE PUBLICITY DO s Don’t s
DO’s
 Open all Communication lines
 Select a spoke person
 Be Empathetic
 Stay Calm
DONT’s
 Hesitation
 Litigation
 Retaliation
 Prevarication
 Pontification
 Confrontation
 Obfuscation
PUBLICITY TECHNIQUES
1. Continuous public relation activities
2. Pre-planned short term activities

3. 3. Unpredictable short term activities
Continuous publicity activities
 Community involvement-local and industry
 News letters, news papers, company magazines
 Employee relations
 Media kits and photography
 Shareholder, owner, and financial community relations
Preplanned short term activities
 News or press release
 Press conference
 Ceremonies, openings, and events
 Announcements
 Marketing research
Unpredictable short term activities
 Handling negative publicity
 Media interviews

OUT COMES OF PUBLICITY
o Attention
o Visibility
o Market share
o Recognition
o Branding

4. DISADVANTAGES
o less control
o Less accuracy
o Few release published
o Inaccurate information
o May fail to reach the desired audience
o Usually not repeated
o Expensive if staff hired
o Can cause harm
ADVANTAGES
o Credible
o cost effective
o Often generates high frequency of exposure
o Helps increase profits
o Easier to do business
o Hiring easier
o Saves advertising money
Characteristics of Publicity
 Publicity can be positive or negative
 Publicity has credibility because people believe the media is objective and presents facts
 Publicity reaches a mass audience because a large number of people follow the news,
especially the national news
 Publicity is intended to inform rather than to sell
 Publicity does not have a sponsor
 Publicity cannot be controlled by the recipient
 Publicity does have costs when a business engages staff to write news releases for the
media